A grant recently received by The Garden Club of Newtown will allow Victory Garden volunteers to hone their efforts without needing to always bring tools from home.

In April, the club applied to The Tool Grant Program, offered by The Ames Companies through the company's partnership with National Garden Clubs Inc (NGC). The Garden Club of Newtown is a member of NGC.

Through a grant request prepared by club member Vicki Boccuzzi, with help from her husband John, the club explained that it worked "in association with other clubs and organizations [to help] maintain a very large community garden in the Fairfield Hills complex in Newtown, Conn." The application further explained that the Victory Garden produces "a large volume of vegetables distributed to those in need."

The work in the garden is all done by volunteers, "including special needs adults and children as well as those in the community who do not have the space and/or resources to maintain a garden of their own.

"It is a program that the community takes a great deal of pride in," the club's application continued.

While most who toil in the garden have their own tools to use, "When young people from Ability Beyond arrive in a van, it is often difficult to make all feel a part of the process without proper equipment available," the application pointed out. "In addition, those participants who do not maintain a garden of their own also lack tools and therefore are difficult to engage in the process."

It was the garden club's hope, the Boccuzzi wrote in the grant application, that "ready access to appropriate tools will both make the time spent in the garden more effective and also will involve a broader range of individuals in this meaningful project. All volunteers will feel that they are contributing equally to the goal of producing food for the community."

Nancy Fulk, the Tool Grant Manager for Ames Inc, e-mailed The Garden Club of Newtown on June 4, delivering bad and good news.

"Requests for tools totaled over four times the tools available," through Ames, Ms Fulk wrote.

Nevertheless, The Garden Club of Newtown was chosen to receive a grant of tools from the company.

"In order to support as many worthwhile projects as possible, some grants were modified to decrease the number of tools awarded," the grant manager explained. Ms Fulk's also mentioned how much she enjoyed reading about the Victory Garden, and "learning of all the work detailed in your projects."

The grant for the local garden club included 17 items: a digging shovel, a floral digging shovel, a border spade, a floral garden rake, three garden hoes, a two-prong hoe, a spading fork, a 26-inch poly leaf rake, a hand trowel, two shovels, two garden rakes, and a three-cubic-foot poly cart. Some of the tools are scaled to children's size.

The tools were delivered to the community garden on July 30. Members were greeted by three people from Ability Beyond, who were already harvesting some of the tomatoes from their rows.

Victory Garden Chair Gail Friedman mentioned on Monday that 2018 is turning into a "banner year" season for the garden. "Everyone is taking such good care of their rows," said Ms Friedman, who stepped into the role of chair at the beginning of the season. Co-founders Harvey Pessin and Brid Craddock decided to step down at the beginning of the year, seven years after working with FAITH Food Pantry President Lee Paulsen to establish and then maintain the community effort.

"We are already harvesting squash, potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions, garlic, and lettuce," Ms Friedman said Monday morning. "We're just starting to see tomatoes, and pretty soon we'll see corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, and other items."

As she spoke, fellow Victory Garden members Barbara Richardson and Annemarie Roller spoke with Garden Club of Newtown members as well as Eric Parkes, an Ability Beyond client who was picking tomatoes that morning. Mr Parkes was carrying one of the new rakes covered by the Ames grant and smiling broadly.

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Gathered outside the Victory Garden on Monday morning were, from left, John and Vicky Boccuzzi, who helped write the grant application for The Garden Club of Newtown and who used an Ames Tool Grant Program award to purchase tools for the community garden; Victory Garden Committee member Annemarie Roller; Garden Club of Newtown President Peg Townsend; Victory Garden Committee member Barbara Richardson; Garden Chair Gail Friedman; and Ability Beyond representatives Leon Guerrero, Eric Parkes, and Sharon Luchsinger.

-Bee Photo, Hicks

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Tomatoes harvested Monday, July 29, at the Victory Garden rest atop two of the new gardening tools acquired by The Garden Club of Newtown through a grant from The Ames Company.

[naviga:img class="aligncenter wp-image-332656" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SH_Garden-Club-of-Newtown-Ames-grant-Victory-Garden-Townsend-with-tools-containers.jpg" alt="SH_Garden Club of Newtown Ames grant Victory Garden -- Townsend with tools & containers" width="800" height="534" /]

Garden Club of Newtown President Peg Townsend stands with the collection of tools and utility cart the garden club acquired through an Ames Company grant. The garden club maintains four rows at The Victory Garden, beginning with the first one just inside the gate, behind Ms Townsend. In the background, checking on rows Monday morning, is Victory Garden Chair Gail Friedman.